DAT206: Group project using Kinect

In our group project, we are using the Kinect with OpenKinect, which is an open community-driven API that is used to access the Kinect's sensors and camera, and also allows Processing to control the tilt. The Kinect was only just released last year, so for the first time in IDAT, we will be using the many capabilities that have never before been exploited in a project.

Originally meant as an interactive peripheral for the Xbox 360, in response to Sony's PlayStation Move and the incumbent Wiimote, many opportunities became true after Spanish hacker Héctor Martín Cantero managed to create the first open-source driver for the device in response to an Adafruit competition bounty. The OpenKinect project was founded after Héctor posted the hack on Github, and is available in various programming languages; the version we're using is the Processing variant, which includes the necessary libraries in order to access the API. OpenKinect is in continuous development, and many more programming languages are being added as development progresses.

Our game will be themed on zombie survival, and the goal of the game is to survive the whole duration of the game without getting touched by zombies, and defend yourself against them. We are going to try and fuse two Kinect devices to create a 3D world, and use the tracking features in the OpenKinect API to detect the player's movement and interactions against the zombies, and to detect collisions that would result in the player's heath being subtracted. We are also going to use an object to act as the gun, which the player uses against the zombies. The Kinect will detect the player's interaction with the object, and whenever the player pulls the trigger, it fires the gun, and if the gun is aimed well at the zombies, the zombie then gets killed.